Koko Adventure
''Koko Adventure '' ( ) is a Famicom platform game developed by Open Corp. in 1993. It is one of the few games for the Famicom that was developed in South Korea. This game was better well-known as its unreleased, American version known as Buzz & Waldog. Overview The game stars two characters, Koko and Suzi, who share the same abilities. You can either play as one of the characters in single player or both in multiplayer (the multiplayer mode is designed in a way similar to Super Mario Bros, i.e. the players need to complete each stage in turns). The A button is used to jump and the B button allows you to do a spin kick jump which can hit anything around you. In each level, you have to collect a required amount of keys under the time limit in order to beat it. Each stage is divided into 3 levels with a boss fight in the end. There are 5 stages in total and after completing them you need to beat all the bosses again before confronting the final boss. There are also question mark boxes around that you can break to get points, gems, a time increase, 1-ups or a power-up. The power-up can either grant you the ability to double jump and if you already have that, the ability to let you glide in the air. Buzz & Waldog Koko Adventure was later changed and was supposed to be released by Innovation Technology in 1993 but due to unknown reasons, it never was along with some of Open Corp.'s other games. In this version, Suzi is replaced with a male character known as Waldog and the title screen was changed. (although her name remains on the game over screen through cheating/hacking). That version also features infinite lives, which was likely intended for debugging and testing. Credits *Team: Magic Tiger *Programmer, Writer: Koo Eun Joong *Character Design: Jung Joo Suk *Backgrounds Design: Jung Joo Suk, Koo Eun Joong *Title, Ending Design: Kang Sun Hee *Composer: Khweon Dae Yong *Director: Kim Eul Suk *Special Thanks: Kim Jong In, Jung Gyoung Taek *Presented by: Open Corp. Trivia *This game has graphics ported from ''Super Mario World'' and the sound engine is from Tiny Toon Adventures. Some of this game's graphics were also in a Zemina game called Magic Kid Googoo. *This game shares many similarities with Toto World 3 in terms of music, bosses and certain graphics. Also, the way the level tracks were arranged within Koko's Adventure doesn't match their own order of the levels but with Toto World 3's, suggesting Toto World 3 would have seen a Famicom port but was later turned into a different game instead. This is also supported by the fact that tiles from the Toto World 3 title screen (such as the blades of grass at the screen's bottom and palmtrees that show up behind the backdrop's bushes) are present yet unused in the game's graphics. *The ROM dump of the Korean version features an earlier English title hidden inside of it, showing that the game was originally going to be called "Buzz & Spinner". Also worth noting is that there are sprites (although sparse) of Waldog in the ROM, meaning that Open Corp. likely intended the project to get an English release from the start. *The title screen has its own palette addresses and graphic sets between the two versions instead of sharing them. Also Buzz and Waldog's palettes are in a different location in the ROM from Koko Adventure, likely because the Suzi character in Koko Adventure has her palette shared with certain graphics in the levels (such as the sunflowers in the first world). Lastly they have separate palette sets despite having the same colors. *The game features a surprising number of underutilized graphical aspects; for instance, Buzz and Waldog (or Koko and Suzi) each have their own unique graphic sets for the HUD, power-ups, moving platforms, and the boss' health meter but use the exact same sprite sets for both. Another thing is that certain level graphics like the teleporter doors are actually animated, but all the frames use the same sprite making them look static. Finally, each world has its own graphic set for the enemies, but they have the same design in every world rather than giving them world-exclusive reskins a la ''Jurassic Boy''. These apply to both versions of the game. *A lot of level 5-3's layout is very similar to (if not outright copied from) Chocolate Island 4 from Super Mario World. Gallery File:Kokoadventure.jpg|Cover. File:P5140081.jpg|Cartridge and box. Koko-front.jpg|Cartridge. File:Buzz and Waldog Title.png|Title screen of Buzz & Waldog. gamechamp_1993-5_kokototo.jpg|Koko & Toto Adventures ad from Game Champ, May 1993 issue. Photo courtesy of tarzan. External link *Article with pictures of the box, cart and manual References Category:Games Category:Unreleased games Category:Famicom/NES games Category:Platform games Category:Open Corp. Category:1993 video games